How to get your full deposit back.

01Why deductions happen

A landlord is entitled to the property back in the condition it was let, minus fair wear and tear. If it is not, cleaning is charged against the deposit. That is the whole mechanism, and almost every dispute is an argument about condition with no evidence attached.

In our experience the deductions that actually get made cluster in a small number of places:

• Oven interiors, hobs and extractor filters
• Limescale on taps, shower screens and tiling
• Grease behind and under kitchen units
• Mould in bathroom sealant and grout
• Fridge and freezer seals
• Carpets, where there is staining rather than wear

Notice what is not on that list: tidiness. Clerks are not judging your housekeeping. They are comparing the property to a document.

02Start with the inventory, not the kitchen

Your check-in inventory is the benchmark the clerk will use. It is also the thing most tenants never open again after moving in.

Read it before you start cleaning. It tells you the condition every room was in when you arrived, which is the standard you have to return it to — not showroom condition, and not worse than you found it. If something was already marked as damaged or worn, you are not responsible for it.

If you cannot find your copy, ask the agent for it. They are required to have it.

03Give yourself more time than you think

Seven to ten days before the end of the tenancy is realistic. Not because the cleaning takes that long, but because you will find something that needs a second attempt — an oven that needs stripping twice, a sealant line that needs treating and leaving.

The rush is what causes missed areas, and missed areas are what get charged.

04Where to concentrate

If your time is limited, spend it here, in this order:

The oven

Interior, door glass, racks, and the extractor filter above it. This is the single most commonly deducted item and the most time-consuming to do properly.

The bathroom

Limescale on the screen and taps, grout, sealant, and the plugholes. Mould in sealant needs treating and leaving to work, not scrubbing.

The kitchen

Inside every cupboard and drawer, behind and beneath the units, and the seals on the fridge and freezer.

Everything at eye level and below

Skirting boards, switches, sockets, door frames and handles. These are where a clerk runs a finger.

05Should you do it yourself or hire someone

Honestly, it depends on the property and how much time you have. A studio you have lived in alone for a year is a weekend of work. A five-bedroom shared house at the end of an academic year usually is not.

The arithmetic that matters: a professional clean generally costs less than the deduction it prevents, and considerably less if there are several tenants sharing one deposit outcome. But if you have the time and the property is in decent shape, doing it yourself is a perfectly reasonable decision and we will tell you so if you ask.

Whatever you choose, photograph the property once it is finished, dated, room by room. A photographic record ends a deposit argument before it starts. It is the cheapest insurance available to you and it costs nothing.

06What we would quote you for

For context, on a recent one-bedroom flat in Saltdean the carpets were in good condition, so we quoted vacuuming rather than extraction and never added it. The oven needed a full strip-down, so that was priced as a separate line rather than folded into a lower headline figure that would then have grown.

The deposit came back in full with no deductions. We cannot promise that outcome — it is decided by someone else — but we can quote only for what the property actually needs.

See the Saltdean job in full →

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